Voltera: Removing Barriers In Printed Electronics

The future of electronics is changing. It is progressing from traditional rigid electronics to a more flexible, stretchable, and conformable future — a future where electronics are lighter, more sustainable, and more adaptable. But when it comes to these new form factors, researchers and innovators often face difficulty transferring their ideas into tangible results. 

Innovators face all types of barriers to entry, such as high minimum order quantities, long product lead times, unresponsive third-party contract manufacturers, and limited design freedom in both form factor and material selections. Additionally, there are accessibility roadblocks; it can be difficult to find in-house prototyping equipment that doesn’t break the bank, and even more difficult finding one that’s user-friendly. 

At Voltera, our mission is to catalyze innovation by removing barriers to entry. This makes the printed electronics industry more accessible through reduced iteration time, avoiding contract manufacturers, and enabling materials freedom for a variety of applications. We do that with our two printed electronics dispensing systems, V-One and NOVA.

V-One

In 2015 we launched our first product — V-One. It’s a compact PCB printer that enables same-day prototyping of PCBs right on your desk. Its 4-in-1 functionality allows you to drill through holes and vias, print traces, dispense solder paste, and reflow, all in your own controlled design environment. V-One also provides an intuitive user experience that's designed for all skill levels, from engineers to students, so PCB prototyping is easier than ever.

A few years after its launch, we discovered that some of our users were using the V-One in novel ways we hadn’t originally intended — for experimenting with printing flexible hybrid electronics (FHEs). 

NOVA

Shortly after, Voltera began developing a modular dispensing system designed specifically for FHEs called NOVA. NOVA enables high resolution printing of a variety of materials, such as conductive and resistive pastes, silicone, epoxy, and more. With NOVA, you can print with any screen printable material (1,000 to 1,000,000 cps) from ink manufacturers like ACI Materials, Novacentrix, Celanese, Copprint, and many more. You can print on a range of substrates, such as polyimide (Kapton), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), and paper — to name a few. Since launching NOVA, we’ve seen the development of several intriguing applications, ranging from medical wearables designed for monitoring vitals, to building a remote controlled robotic hand with strain gauges, and the printing of RFID tags using copper ink on paper.

In addition to materials freedom, NOVA provides users with the ability to change designs on the fly and get immediate feedback on their ideas. With NOVA’s extensive range of capabilities, having an intuitive user experience is vital, which is why we developed a browser-based app that features guided workflows, walkthrough videos, and user profiles. Furthermore, NOVA also has a live in-app chat to connect directly with a Voltera support representative.